Back when I was in school teachers would always scare me with stories of how my exploits would end up in my permanent record. I believe this is it! – Geoff Fox

A Tale Of Two Messages

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We had some dicey weather in the state today. Tornado warnings went up between 2:00 and 3:00 PM.

We were on it at work, but who at home is really prepared for the possibility of tornadoes? People watch and hear my words, but how they react is anyone’s guess.

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We are so tired of hearing these false alarm weather reports. Every time it’s a normal storm becomes a tornado watch. Are you serious people? You’re gonna scare the hell out of old people.

We pre-empted “One Life To Live.” This guy must be a big fan!

I’m not sure it was a tornado. Probably.

At Bridgeport the wind gusted to 75 mph at 2:23PM, then six minutes later to 78 mph. If memory serves me (and my friend Bob who tipped me off) that’s the highest officially recorded gust since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

We’ll know better tomorrow when the Weather Service takes its survey and makes the official declaration.

In the end though what difference does it make? The damage was as bad as anything a tornado causes.

Not long after the voicemail I got this plain email.

Geoff: This may be silly but you are being talked about with a lot of admiration today. I’m in Rochester, NY and a viewer of yours wrote on a soap board how you came on TV during One Life To Live to talk about a possible tornado warning. You APOLOGIZED for interrupting the show. This never, never happens. And we often talk about how the soap fans are treated with such a lack of respect by television reporters. They interrupt the soaps when they would never interrupt a sporting event. I just wanted to thank you from here in Rochester, NY for respecting the soap viewer. It is much appreciated and you are becoming a hero on the board.

John – I limited this to officially measured wind at the airport (Bridgeport Sikorsky in this case). There have certainly been stronger winds somewhere in Connecticut over the last 25 years. The tornadoes you’re talking about were in 1989.

Geoff I’m just glad it wasn’t General Hospital that got the interuption!! Haha..in all seriousness I’ve been watching your forecasts since the good ol’ “Gloria” days and I appreciate the reports you give. I think you’d have a lot more angry folks if you didn’t put the information out there and the first ones that would complain the loudest would be that one life to live guy!!